Industry

2014 is over and done with, and we the hip-hop community are moving onto greater endeavors. After an overall mediocre year for rap albums, 2015 is destined to be different. Hip-hop's biggest names are all scheduled to release albums this year, and the timing could not be more right. Today, who better than Rae Sremmurd to kick off the new year of releases with their debut album, Sremm Life. Only...

If we've learned anything from Kendrick Lamar's verse on Big Sean's song "Control", it's that there seems to be something lacking in today's Hip Hop genre. This is evidenced by the reaction of fans, the industry, social media and artists themselves.
At HNHH, we think this discussion is a good thing for rap; but it leaves us with a lot of questions. And if the recent outpouring of reactions...

Long viewed as an art form mired in chauvinism and bravado, hip hop is in the midst of ‘gender-fication’ with an upheaval in how we view, listen, and consume the music. Talking about your glock while holding your cock, is no longer limited to male rappers.
Nicki Minaj has taken rap, pop and R&B by storm, and melded it into her own cornucopia of pop-synth other-worldly...

The story of two brothers who came from nothing, from a city far off the hip-hop radar, and built an empire. But they didn’t do it alone. Brothers Bryan “Baby” Williams (who we now know as Birdman), age 22, and Ronald “Slim” Williams, age 24, wanted to get out of their projects and build a better life for their family and friends in Magnolia and the surrounding...

Game Changers is a new HNHH feature
that highlights artists that have left a strong mark on hip hop.
Whether it be through creativity, influence, exposure, or just plain
good timing, a game changer is someone who has brought something to
rap where the game just wouldn't be the same without them.
In our first entry to the series, we're
covering New Orleans legend Lil Wayne. Weezy has been a...

Kevin Gates, a New Orleans, Baton Rouge native, had a tough time leaving the street life alone to focus completely on his music. It's a feat he seems to have finally accomplished though, but his troubled past is still well-documented in his lyrics. If you aren't familiar with the rapper's discography, which includes the stand-out album Stranger Than Fiction, we're about to make you...

We now have the numbers for what was a monumental week in rap history, with Kanye West, J. Cole and Mac Miller all dropping their respective albums on June 18th. And Kelly Rowland. This marks the first time since 2006 that three rap releases have broken the 100k mark opening week, the las time being when Jay-Z's Kingdom Come (680,000), Snoop Dogg's Tha Blue Carpet Treatment (264,000)...

Eminem is one of the biggest things to happen to hip-hop, period. He challenged the status quo and found success as a white artist in a predominantly black industry. Though he was not the first white rapper to blow, Eminem is one of the few to be consistently ranked among the greatest rappers of all time.
Though his recent work hasn't been as impactful as earlier efforts, everyone from the kids...

For hip-hop aficionados, out of all the glorious things it has done, the Internet has most importantly allowed the entire music industry to change. Instead of waiting for labels to promote the hottest new artist and go through painstaking processes to find them, Tweets, Facebook shares, YouTube videos allow every musician, big or small, to be heard. This has allowed rappers to rise...

By now you've probably seen, or at
least heard about, the Tupac hologram which debuted at Dr. Dre &
Snoop Dogg's performance at Coachella. It took the internet by storm,
and was praised by many; but there is still a sense of hesitancy in
accepting that holograms are the 'way of the future.' I don't think
I'm alone in saying that I hope that the Tupac hologram doesn't
become a regular...

What most music fans don’t know is that a major record label deal is not guaranteed change in your pocket. A recording contract is essentially a legal agreement which allows the record label to exploit an artist’s work through recorded material. This includes the album’s release, promotion, marketing, sales… you name it. The price tag set on the deal merely highlights the...

This week we saw Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience break another record, after first topping Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV in first week sales, it became the first record in 2013 to crack one million sales, going platinum just two weeks after it dropped. On the other end of the spectrum, we saw Weezy F's album, I Am Not A Human Being II, sell a strong 217k, but it did not really live up to...

Soon Jay-Z is going to be on the charts, undoubtedly dominating the top spot, which belonged to J. Cole this week. Jay-Z's new album has made waves not only for it's creative rollout but for changing the rules of RIAA, in order to ensure the album went platinum before it even dropped, unlike our other chart-toppers this week, who are working their way to platinum the old-fashioned way. On top of...

Wiz Khalifa is currently working on a new album, Blacc Hollywood. He's already revealed some of the artists he's working with on the album, including The Weeknd, Miley Cyrus and Adele, while he's released just one (possible) album cut, "Look Into My Eyes." Although the updates on the album have been a little slow lately, we got to speak to Wiz about the whole concept of 'Blacc...

Last week we saw several independent rappers make their debut on the charts (sort of-- some of them didn't sell enough to actually chart, yet), but this week we return to the big guns, like Drake and DJ Khaled. Khaled is an interesting case, because while he is definitely considered among the 'big guns' aka mainstream stars, he didn't move mainstream numbers. Although Suffering From Success was...

This week on Charts Don't Lie we have one new entry, and that's Wale with The Gifted. Wale is an interesting rapper to consider, because there's no denying people love to hate on him. We saw this with the resurgence of old tweets from rappers-- one thing they seemed to all have in common was their strong dislike from Mr. Folarin. And it's not even just those tweets from back in the day, even now,...